One of my WD Raptor hard drives died (it was Raid0, so ruined a lot..). So, I decided to try using Windows Vista when the replacement came. I thought it would be an appropriate time to upgrade.

Vista has received a lot of flack for its performance issues, but my computer is more than capable enough to deal with them. The installation went well, it detected my raid setup, so I didn’t have to create a special slipstreamed CD like I did for XP, and everything seemed to be going pretty well.

It generally detected drivers pretty well, automatically installing the network driver which would allow me to virtually install anything it missed and grab updates. However, it did not seem to grab the appropriate driver for my graphics card, a Nvidia 7900GT. I went to Windows Update so it would grab a newer one and other updates that needed installed.

Unfortunately, once it installed the driver all I would see was diagonal lines across the screen completely destroying any chance of understanding what it was really displaying. It was acting like the refresh rate was not what it should be. So, I decide to roll the driver back and try something else. After booting into Safe Mode, I get the driver rolled back, and go back into normal mode to have another stab. I try the latest version of the driver from Nvidia, and get the exact same result.

I begin to search across the internet, there appears to be a solution which is an optional download in Windows Update. I’m thinking “Oh, Ok, well at least the solution isn’t so painful.” I try to install the update. It fails. I look up the generic illogical error code and suggests checking for corrupt system files. I do, it doesn’t find any. I try to install the updates several times over with different combinations of things, and none of it works.

Now I’m not sure how to solve this problem. The suggested solution I’ve found online is to — get this — overclock my video card to make it reliably work, because of some bug in the driver or something? Wow. That’s backwards.

So, I’m not sure what to do with my computer, I guess I’ll be reverting back to XP.

Thumbs Down on Vista.

I realize I haven’t written much of anything lately, but things have still been going on..

I’ve spent a lot of time working, this is good because I get money, this is also bad because it is quite time consuming. However, I have had enough time to do some interesting things.

I went to New York last weekend, which was a great trip. The Chinatown bus however is becoming a less pleasant experience. Since gas has gone over $4/gallon, apparently the buses are becoming increasingly swamped which resulted in my friends and I not getting a seat on our originally scheduled bus. The way home on Sunday evening was quite good. There has been a lot of talk of new buses ( www.boltbus.com and www.megabus.com are two of the big ones ) that offer $1 rides or other gimmicks — however this appears to be only if you book signifigantly in advance, which in my mind defeats a large part of the convenience of Chinatown buses which provide cheap ($35 ROUND TRIP DC->NYC) spontaneous tickets.. I’ve attached a picture from the top of the Met, one of the best views of NYC.

So, I’m sure there are many other runners out there who would be disappointed that a treadmill cuts off after a certain time (particularly one runner I recently read about who was attempting to break a treadmill marathon time…), but I have a new found appreciation for the cut off. My treadmill cuts off after 30 minutes, and when you get that thing moving (Around 9 or higher speed), it’ll start sounding quite loud.. It’s somewhere between an econobox trying to drive the hills in San Fransisco and a jet preparing for takeoff, either way it sounds like its trying — almost as hard as I am. After you’ve been running hard on it for awhile and it cuts off at 30 minutes it gives up and cuts off. I realize it is programmed to do this, but it still provides me satisfaction, perhaps more than it should.